jcagara08

I will get this setup in a few days:

New Macbook Pro 15 with the Iris Pro

AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box

PCIe 16x to 16x Powered Riser (Molex connector)

Asus Strix GTX 970 (4GB)

Corsair RM550

Still waiting for the AKiTiO box and Macbook, but both are here tuesday/wednesday next week. I will be able to test the optimus problems and other stuff. So if you need me to test anything, let me know

Great are you a student or a pro with editing works likr videos photos for a living? Dang I too want such a setup...

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upgrademonkey!

But dang look at those prices sheesh you can have an SLI GTX 970 desktop version, heck even a 3 way GTX 970 SLI

Just for you guys, comparison of GTX 980M and GTX 970M in SLI
GPU Scaling is so great that it makes me want to cop a notebook with GTX 970M in SLI
Oh well still waiting for Skylake then it will be a total win for 2015 for a mini ITX gaming build LOL
Shut up and take my money already!

Unfortunately the latest mac-mini specs list "Up to 3.0Ghz dual-core i7 processor". This being a slower CPU than previous gen mac-minis that packed a quad-core. This is highlighted in the article New, improved, slower Mac Mini | ZDNet . However, the 2014 version does have two 16Gbps-TB2 ports. Previous gens had 10Gbps-TB1.

We have some existing Mac Mini eGPU implementations. UEFI http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#Thunderbolt

Neither the 2012 nor the 2014 Mac Mini can give the optimum maximum 16Gbps-TB2 eGPU performance together with a quad-core CPU. Need to look at a 15" Macbook Pro or 15/17" HP ZBook 15/17 G2 for that (REF: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4109-egpu-candidate-system-list.html#4th ) . Am hopeful the upcoming Broadwell release will see a larger selection of 16Gbps-TB2 equipped notebooks.

@Tech Inferno Fan

It seems that they really have listed it officially in this link;

https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

Two thunderbolt 2 ports sir Tech Inferno Fan, kindly look into it, I might buy it soon LOL!

Pesky hipster apple site does not want me to post image URL here hence I can't show any image

excuse me here it is out of DIY LOL;

Ah yes there is no quad core i7 Haswell only a dual core i7 that sounds like an i5 performer jeez...

@Tech Inferno Fan @jacobsson Guys Apple launched some new devices few days back and I noticed that there is an updated (not sure though) Mac Mini with two thunderbolt 2 ports, yes you read it correctly two thunderbolt 2 ports! Can this be a very good candidate for having an DIY eGPU setup? Sounds good to me but I don't know the common obstacles for apple devices in implementing an eGPU. If prices will be scrutinized one can already have a good entry to mid level pc build with the current Mac Mini prices. I would like to know your thoughts on this new model.

here it is; [URL]https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/design/[/URL]

And see guys how cheap it is to have a Thunderbolt 2 Chip controller from intel; [URL]http://ark.intel.com/products/76721/Intel-DSL5520-Thunderbolt-2-Controller[/URL]

"

Recommended Customer Price

T&R : $9.95 TRAY: $9.95

"

I have begun a pettion at change.org. Here's the URL: https://www.change.org/petitions/intel-allow-silverstone-and-asus-to-sell-the-asus-sg-station-2#share

man I have signed the petition you made months back, now it only needs 3 signatures more to reach 200 sigs!

will this bring change really? can this petition be taken seriously by Intel?

Since I seem to need another lane, anyone know if I could convert my msata DVD connector to a mpcie slot? Would an adapter like this really work or is it just for disks? http://www.amazon.com/mSATA-PCI-E-PCIE-Converter-Adapter/dp/B00ARB624U

Whoah this is some news! Yes it might be possible but crossfire and sli for DIY eGPU still not fully supported unfortunately only undet linux and sone nerd level tinkering, why not try it for the community buddy? I am sure that adapter is cheap I guess.

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Hey guys,

I am looking at getting an refurbished lenovo g505s. the one without dual graphics. i have seen that the AMD A10-5750performs somewhere around the same as the lower i7-4k's so i believe that i can avoid bottlenecking from the cpu. my question is if the lenovo has pcie gen 2 or 1. i would prefer gen 2. and another question is how would i be able to tell if the slots can be configured for more than one lane. a 2x slotwould be great. a 4x would be ideal. i know that i have one i can use since the bluetooth module is in one. i would gladly remove it. i just need to know if it has gen two and if they can be configured for more lanes(if so how?)

This is your notebook right?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-G505s-20255-Notebook.99459.0.html

It has the similar layouts for my G500 except for the mini pcie slot which is oddly placed in the middle, I think you can do a eGPU setup but I am not sure if the AMD apu will support it, otherwise, I do have the same dGPU which is the 8750M disabled when eGPU is mounted and proper desktop catalyst drivers are installed in a proper way.

Yeah that shadow of mordor! Forces us to havr SLI CF setups..sheeeet

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whoah this is such an awesome thread but what happened? Action lost?

perhaps the newest catalyst 14.9.1 beta will work since many complained of crossfire difficulties in the newly released WHQL AMD Catalyst 14.9

such a nerdy but rewarding crossfire attempts here guys!

Hi!

If you really hated it, you`d not have done it ;-P

I guess - for me at last - this setup is not an option. I want to play with best performance during business trips.

Why don`t you open an extra thread?!

There will surely be some people who enjoy this workaround.

Best regards

phila

There is no need boss it just came to my mind the idea of having a DIY eGPU for your monster laptops that I could not afford as of the moment yes I would love to have one and will surely rev it up more (is GPU power) to its limits =)

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Hate to hi jack this thread guys but for all of ya'll who does not a problem shelling out that much money in these mobile GTX 970M and 980M, if graphics card performance, temp limits and vRAM size is somewhat a concern why not try to DIY eGPU 2.0 these little monsters with full desktop GTX 970 980? this is techinferno right hosting this very big topic?

just my 2 cents.

This is a very nice option for peeps who can have an X2 setup for more power! OP when is that new PE4C V2.1 releasing? And is there an enclosure to be offered in the future?

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Again an AMD R9 295X2 will suffice for this need

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You could use say an ATX PSU to drive one of your other PCIe power connector. You shouldn't be trying to use additional power supplies to drive the 75W slot power.

Indeed, a OCed HD7950 Boost could use up to 251W peak power: HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ X² Boost 3 GB Review | techPowerUp

Your black screens could be the DA-2 overload circuitry kicking.

Another option would be to decrease peak power by undervolting and perhaps downclocking the card using AMD Overdrive or Sapphire Trixx software.

@Tech Inferno Fan

Thanks! RIght I think that is the only logical way to go, it will be an advantage to me as I plan to build a mini ITX setup soon so I guess the Dell DA-2 will be very useful to lower powered cards like GTX 970 (nando correct me if am wrong and tell me if someone already have this setup with the EXP GDC?)

To me undervolting or underclocking does not sound so good LOL I prefer to play games at Ultra Settings @ full HD =P

Hi Buddy!

So you're looking to get the EXP GDC V7 from here I assume?

The Yoybuy package includes

• EXP GDC V7 (also called ARES V7)
  
• DA-2 PSU
  
• 6-pin power split cable
  
• Expresscardcable / mPCIe data cable (depending on choice)
  

And that's all you need if you're planning on using the DA-2 as PSU.

The DA-2 should be sufficient for the GTX980, but I'd check the TDP carefully on benchmarking reviews first so that your brand of choice is staying within the 220W limit.

@jacobsson @Tech Inferno Fan

Last two nights back I was gaming with my rig heck even last night but initially two nights back I experienced this blackout again and I thought to myself, since the EXP GDC V6 has an extra power slot (DC interface), can we use that to provide extra power other than the already supplied 220W Dell DA-2 adapter? I have a doubt on voltage lowering states of the DA-2 hence the so-called blackouts (my theory) so can we use safely use that extra power slot (beside the USB hub) with any 12V pin type adapter?

They love us PC gamers and they want to milk us to the last cent heck look at shadow of mordor, it needs 6GB of VRAM to run game at ultra settings.. got dang pc gaming is getting so expensive these days!

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@jcagara08, I've split off the discussion from the DIY eGPU thread into a WIP guide. Feel free to populate as a complete GUIDE and when done will shuttle it off into the new DIY e-GPU Guides subsection.

Yes I will do it soon as I find time Tech Inferno Fan don't worry! I have almost reached a stable implementation so write up will be up very soon

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Sorry OP to be OT but

a mini ITX build @ $600-700 will be a monster in games and productivity.

Thanks Tech Inferno Fan it's an honor receive your first direct response.

I tested in fact yesterday OC but create crashes so now all is running at fabric default.

My Lenovo X220 does have EC2 interface theoretically capable of Gen2 speed. Also PE4C V2.0 need to support Gen2 (right?). Will check if setting to Gen1 will solve the issue but I will be really disappointed since will mean much worse performance.

it can be that our laptops could not handle the bandwidth of the GPU activity..

I experienced too last night when I overclocked via overdrive I set Memory at 1575 MHz, +20% power, and Clock Speed @ 1150, it really went off!

(EGPU turned off! Power was cut and adapter did not have any light even the blue lights in the EXP GDC power port was off!!)

AMD Radeon HD 7950 Boost is really such a hungry card I guess,

Returned to stock settings and played BF4 Campaign and it was again that stable.

It is really such an annoying occurence which is intermittent and so random.

TLDR; my Lenovo G500 Throttles and Radeon HD 7950 is power hungry

Need to repaste CPU and GPU as well as effective cooling.

@Tech Inferno Fan

when I open GPU-z it shows that gpu is running at

"PCIE 3.0 @x16 X1 2.0/2" Am I running at an ideal speed?

I experienced also a stability issue: after few minutes of work (testing on video editing app and game editors) the screen go black and next return and the system state "AMD display driver stopped working and has recovered". I need to disable external display and reboot the system, otherwise I'm not able to do anything more.

This is also your problem?

I did not see any prompts that driver stopped working, it really turns off by itself (video signal lost but GPU is powered on) like last night I was playing Campaign style BF4 all of a sudden the cutscene stopped and video signal went out like the whole setup went to sleep. I Guess it can be a CPU throttle issue (for me) and or GPU hardware issue. Other guys told to plug and unplug DVI cable /HDMI to like remind the GPU it has a job to do and wake up from sleep and I did not try this yet. Some say win + P or ctrl alt del but sadly I have to long press power button just to restart which can be bad for the HDD

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a DESKTOP i7 AND 2 GPUs ...

Like i said its a Notebook-CPU vs. Desktop-CPU + 2 GPUs vs. 1 GPU + the bottleneck of the bandwith i think 19408 is a good score for this.

Thanks man, I just found that my laptop is throttling on me, the CPU, I guess it could not handle the heat produced during 64 man BF4 large conquest matches, I think I have to do a repasting of GPU and CPU in desktop style then a more effective cooling solution...my 3dmark 06 result yes indeed its quite on the mid high scores but I envy you guys reaching up to 26K dang

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HIghest so far in 3dmark 06 hall of fame for our card Radeon HD 7950 Boost is at 40000, his setup consists of an i7 and crossfire. My theory is that out laptop's CPU TDP limit is what makes the bottleneck as well as the mini PCIE slot bandwidth.

My highest stable (OC attempts) score for 3dmark 06 is @ 19,408 (halfway of 40K) with catalyst 14.8 and, ocing a little bit at 1110MHz + 20% power while running that Ideafan application to make the CPU as cool as possible.

Here it is;

AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-3230M Processor,LENOVO INVALID

Here is the setup I was talking about;

AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4770K,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. SABERTOOTH Z87 40,453 (CF + i7 4770K)

Hey did anyone of you even bothered to read this post I made? sheesh

Discovered the arcane: leaderboard look at 3DMark.gpu component, so my marks are

3DMark Vantage.gpu = 24255

3DMark11.gpu = 7656

quite good and comparable to similar setup.

HIghest so far in 3dmark 06 hall of fame for our card Radeon HD 7950 Boost is at 40000, his setup consists of an i7 and crossfire. My theory is that out laptop's CPU TDP limit is what makes the bottleneck as well as the mini PCIE slot bandwidth.

My highest stable (OC attempts) score for 3dmark 06 is @ 19,408 (halfway of 40K) with catalyst 14.8 and, ocing a little bit at 1110MHz + 20% power while running that Ideafan application to make the CPU as cool as possible.

Here it is;

AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-3230M Processor,LENOVO INVALID

Here is the setup I was talking about;

AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4770K,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. SABERTOOTH Z87 40,453 (CF + i7 4770K)

Performance results

3dmark06=19408

3dmark11.gpu=9113

3dmark.fs=5172

I didn't use EXP GDC so prefer to leave others with first hand experience to give you confirmation....

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Thanks!

Anyway looking at leaderboard did find others with same GPU 7950 with much higher score.

There are any guide for performance optimization?

Open CCC, go to overdrive, put memory clock to 15XX Mhz, GPU clock set it to 1110 Mhz an slowly increasing it by 25 Mhz in each trial, and lastly additional power settings set it to 10% and if its stable crank it up until +20% more power. That should do the trick. Use the AMD Catalyst 14.9 WQHL too. Hey buddy post some images of your setup too!

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@ OP

I have the same issue, mine seems to be a problem with the ISP itself, like here in the middle east, I have good internet connection but there is just no dedicated servers in this region, we have to rely on EU and ASIAn servers but still I am getting kicked all the time, try to choose a geographically nearby country server.